Chris Knight
Established Member
Sketchup seems a very useful bit of software but coming to it from a full- blown major solid modelling package like Solidworks, I have found it difficult to get to grips with owing to the need to set aside many habits, preconceptions and whatnot. In particular, I was finding it difficult to assimilate the notion that it is really only a tool for conceptualising and not a tool for producing engineering drawings and assembly diagrams. As such, many of the models one sees on the web are simple surfaces with nothing in them that can be inspected or changed sensibly - the antithesis of a parameter driven 3D package in some ways.
I have therefore been pleased to discover a book called 3D Construction Modelling http://tinyurl.com/dwuod that helps me a lot. It is a slimmish paperback written in comic book style with an accompanying CD that contains a full copy of the Sketchup program (version 4.0.170 - which I think is the latest) and most important some 50 or so tutorial movies called "shorties" that last between 1 and 5 minutes. These shorties exactly follow segments and chapters in the book so you can read and see what needs to be done.
What is being done is the construction of a very small house but one which embodies a lot of what one would actually do/ need for such a building project and each segment of the book and CD introduces some new aspect of Sketchup in a painless and natural way.
For those that know Sketchup at all, the project covered uses a large number of layers, a huge amount of grouping and making of components which are aspects I can relate to very easily coming from the background I mentioned. Using this approach one can take a model made by someone else, see how it was built up and modify it sensibly.
At last (@Last!) I feel that I am starting to get a grip on this program.
I have therefore been pleased to discover a book called 3D Construction Modelling http://tinyurl.com/dwuod that helps me a lot. It is a slimmish paperback written in comic book style with an accompanying CD that contains a full copy of the Sketchup program (version 4.0.170 - which I think is the latest) and most important some 50 or so tutorial movies called "shorties" that last between 1 and 5 minutes. These shorties exactly follow segments and chapters in the book so you can read and see what needs to be done.
What is being done is the construction of a very small house but one which embodies a lot of what one would actually do/ need for such a building project and each segment of the book and CD introduces some new aspect of Sketchup in a painless and natural way.
For those that know Sketchup at all, the project covered uses a large number of layers, a huge amount of grouping and making of components which are aspects I can relate to very easily coming from the background I mentioned. Using this approach one can take a model made by someone else, see how it was built up and modify it sensibly.
At last (@Last!) I feel that I am starting to get a grip on this program.
